1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air bag module for a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for installing an air bag module having a crash sensor disposed therein onto a vehicle.
2. Related Art
Air bag modules conventionally include a crash sensor and are mounted on a vehicle in a manner to transmit crash information from the vehicle body to the crash sensor. Diagnostic circuits evaluate the crash information and discriminate between a fire and a no fire condition. In this regard, the airbag module is mounted on the vehicle such that the crash sensor will be subject to forces that indicate a crash condition. For example, the crash sensor usually comprises an accelerometer and the air bag module is rigidly coupled to a portion of the vehicle such that deceleration indicative of a crash condition is transmitted to the crash sensor. When a crash condition requiring air bag deployment is detected, the controller associated with the air bag module sends a signal to ignite an air bag deployment device.
Typically, in order to secure the air bag module to the vehicle, an additional mounting bracket is required to interface between the module and the contour of the vehicle. Standard vehicle mounting technology requires an OEM to supply and properly mount three to four fasteners to join the mounting bracket and module to the vehicle to ensure adequate crash pulse transmission and effective crash discrimination. A disadvantage of this method is that if any number or combination of fasteners is improperly fastened or missing, crash indications may not be properly transmitted to the crash sensor. In that case, the performance of the air bag protection system may be compromised.
The standard mounting technology may also be problematic in terms of maintaining the efficiency of the vehicle assembly process if the air bag module must be mounted in a difficult-to-access location. If the mounting location is difficult to reach, for example, under the dashboard, an assembler may be forced to spend a relatively large amount of time to properly position and mount the air bag module.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a relatively simple mounting arrangement to mount an air bag module to a vehicle. In particular, it is desirable to provide a mounting arrangement which does not require OEMs to supply fasteners, yet provides the appropriate "hard mounts" to promote adequate crash indication transmission and crash discrimination.